Lunch In The Park Across The Road
by FutureNarnianQueenX
Summary: Peter sees Lucy crying on a park bench at lunchtime - what ever could be wrong? Set just before Prince Caspian. Non-incest, just sibling fluff! Please review!


As Peter's stomach rumbled for the sixth hundredth time that morning, he put his books in his bag and walked down the large stone steps in front of his school. People ran past him, shouting and laughing, desperate to make it to the sweet shop before a long queue formed. Peter wasn't fussed about sugar mice and chocolate drops. He never really did have much of a sweet tooth. He preferred to eat his lunch in the park across the road. He liked it there. It was big and open and peaceful, the perfect place to just relax and think.

As he reached the bottom step, someone ran into him from behind, giving him a really sharp pain in his back.

"Sorry, Pete!" his younger brother Edmund said quickly, dashing past him and hurrying down the street with his group of friends.

Peter smiled. His little brother was always running off somewhere, whether it would be to the sweet shop or onto the battlefield.

That thought wiped the smile off his face. He hated being back here in England. Why couldn't they have just stayed in Narnia forever? It felt strange without the heavy shining armour weighing him down, and every time he felt he was in danger, he reached to his left side to pull out his glistening sword and fight off his potential attacker. Except there was no sword to pull out. And he wasn't wearing his shining armour – just his ordinary white shirt, his ordinary school tie, his ordinary black trousers and his ordinary blue blazer.

Peter sighed. He looked to his left, and saw his younger sister Susan and two of her friends – in their girls' school red blazers – standing at the newspaper stall, each of them holding a magazine, but talking to each other whilst they read. One of Susan's friends noticed him looking at them.

"Hi, Peter!" she waved at him. She then started giggling and twirling her hair.

Peter waved back, very embarrassed. Susan started laughing. "Oh, honestly, Rose! My brother? You actually like my brother? Come on, you can do better than _him_!"

Trust Susan to put him down in front of her friends. He rolled his eyes and continued walking towards the park. He crossed the busy road, and reached the tall, open iron gates. He walked in, and saw lots of blue and red figures dotted around the place. None of which were running, of course. The park was a quiet and calm area, free of little children hungry for sweets.

He began making his way to his favourite spot to eat lunch – the bench facing the water fountain. He walked across the grass and through some trees, and finally, he arrived. But, he noticed someone was sitting on the bench that he always sat on at lunch.

The person was wearing a red blazer – she obviously attended the same school as Susan, across the road from the boys' school. She had two brown plaits, tied with little red ribbons, and her head was bowed. As Peter got closer, he realised that the girl was actually his youngest sister, Lucy.

"Lu?"

Lucy turned to look at Peter, tears streaming out of her bloodshot eyes and down her cheeks.

"What's wrong?" Peter asked, sitting down beside his sister on the bench, and holding her hand.

Lucy sniffed and stayed silent for a few seconds.

"You can tell me." Peter encouraged.

Lucy sighed. "I told some girls in my class about Narnia. And they started laughing at me!" she sobbed.

"Oh, Lu…" Peter said quietly, putting his arm around his nine year old sister. He kissed her head, reached in to his pocket and pulled out a hankie. He gave it to her and watched as she wiped away her tears. When she was finished, she gave it back to him, and he stuffed it back in his pocket.

He lifted Lucy up off the bench and sat her down on his lap. She had a small build and was quite light, so he usually did this a lot when she needed comforted.

"Lucy, I thought you, Ed, Su and I agreed that we would never tell anyone about Narnia." Peter said, rubbing Lucy's upper back in circular motions.

"I know, but…" Lucy sighed and looked at the water fountain. "I just… I thought they would believe me!"

"Would you believe it if someone told you that they had found a magical land inside a wardrobe which was inhabited by fauns and beavers and centaurs?"

"I suppose it does sound quite hard to believe." Lucy admitted, sniffing again. "You, Susan and Edmund didn't believe me until you saw it for yourselves."

Peter smiled sympathetically as he remembered back to the day, over a year ago, in Professor Kirke's mansion when Lucy came running, screaming that there was a land called Narnia in the spare room wardrobe. He, Susan and Edmund all thought she was just being a kid, playing a game, making it up. And in the end, the four of them were crowned Kings and Queens of Narnia.

"They said I was crazy, and I belonged in a loony-bin." Lucy continued with blushing cheeks. "They said I was a stupid little baby and I shouldn't be playing pretend games at my age. But it's not a pretend game, Peter, it's not!"

"I know." Peter wrapped his arms around his little sister and held her close. Lucy hugged him back. She always liked it when her eldest brother hugged her. She felt safe and protected. Ever since she was tiny, she had shared a special bond with Peter. When she was a toddler, Susan kept getting annoyed at her for ruining her things, and Edmund kept shouting at her for being such a pain. Whenever she cried, Peter would always pick her up and have a go at the other two before taking Lucy into the back garden to play a game. Lucy loved all three of her siblings, but Peter was always the one who had taken care of her.

Peter pulled away and lifted his sister back to her original position of sitting on the bench. "Okay…" he said, opening his schoolbag and pulling out a bag of slightly squished sandwiches. "Want one?"

Lucy giggled and nodded as her brother passed her a flat raspberry jam sandwich.

"Peter?" said Lucy, after eating one bite.

"Hmm?" Peter mumbled, chewing on his sandwich.

"I love you." Lucy smiled.


End file.
